Election of Ali to the caliphate

Ali frequently accused the third caliph Uthman of deviating from the Quran and the Sunna,[1][2][3] and he was joined in this criticism by most of the senior companions.[2][4] Uthman was also widely accused of nepotism,[5] corruption,[6][7] and injustice,[8] and Ali is known to have protested his conduct,[9] including his lavish gifts for his kinsmen.[10][3] Ali also protected outspoken companions, such as Abu Dharr and Ammar,[11] against the wrath of the caliph.[12] Ali appears in early sources as a restraining influence on Uthman without directly opposing him.[11] Some supporters of Ali were part of the opposition to Uthman,[13][14] joined in their efforts by Talha[15] and Zubayr, who were both companions of Muhammad, and by his widow Aisha.[16][13] Among the supporters of Ali were Malik al-Ashtar (d. 657) and other religiously-learned[17] qurra (lit. 'Quran readers').[3] These wanted to see Ali as the next caliph, though there is no evidence that he communicated or coordinated with them.[18] Ali is also said to have rejected the requests to lead the rebels,[1][19] although he might have sympathized with their grievances,[20][19] and was thus considered a natural focus for the opposition,[21][22] at least morally.[1] It is also likely that some companions supported the protests with the hope of either deposing Uthman,[13] or changing his policies,[23] thus underestimating the severity of the opposition to Uthman.[23]

As their grievances mounted, discontented groups from provinces began arriving in Medina in 35/656.[24] On their first attempt,[25] the Egyptian opposition sought the advice of Ali, who urged them to send a delegation to negotiate with Uthman, unlike Talha and Ammar, who might have encouraged the Egyptians to advance on the town.[26] Ali similarly asked the Iraqi opposition to avoid violence, which was heeded.[27] He also acted as a mediator between Uthman and the provincial dissidents[24][28][20] more than once[29] to address their economical[30] and political[24] grievances. In particular, he negotiated and guaranteed on behalf of Uthman the promises that persuaded the rebels to return home and ended the first siege.[31][24] Ali then urged Uthman to publicly repent, which he did.[32] The caliph soon retracted his statement, however, possibly because his secretary Marwan convinced him that repentance would only embolden the opposition.[33] On their way back home, some Egyptian rebels intercepted an official letter ordering their punishment. They now returned to Medina and laid siege to Uthman's residence for a second time, demanding that he abdicates. The caliph refused and claimed he was unaware of the letter,[34] for which Marwan is often blamed in the early sources.[35][36][37] Ali and another companion sided with Uthman about the letter,[34] and suspected Marwan,[38] while a report by the Sunni al-Baladhuri (d. 892) suggests that the caliph accused Ali of forging the letter.[38] This is likely when Ali refused to further intercede for Uthman.[34][21] That Ali was behind the letter is also the opinion of Leone Caetani (d. 1935). Giorgio Levi della Vida (d. 1967) is unsure, while Wilferd Madelung strongly rejects the accusation, saying that it "stretches the imagination" in the absence of any evidence.[38] In turn, he accuses Marwan,[35] the bellicose secretary of Uthman,[39] while Hugh N. Kennedy holds Uthman responsible for the letter.[40] The caliph was assassinated soon afterward in the final days of 35 AH (June 656) by the Egyptian rebels[35] during a raid on his residence in Medina.[41][42][43][44]

Ali played no role in the deadly attack,[1][45] and his son Hasan was injured while guarding Uthman's besieged residence at the request of Ali.[46][47][13][46] He also convinced the rebels not to prevent the delivery of water to Uthman's house during the siege.[34][11] Beyond this, historians disagree about his measures to protect the third caliph.[23] Ali is represented by al-Tabari (d. 923) as an honest negotiator genuinely concerned for Uthman.[48] Husain M. Jafri (d. 2019) and Madelung highlight multiple attempts by Ali for reconciliation,[13][49] and Martin Hinds (d. 1988) believes that Ali could not have done anything more for Uthman.[11] Reza Shah-Kazemi points to Ali's "constructive criticism" of Uthman and his opposition to violence,[50] while Moojan Momen writes that Ali mediated between Uthman and the rebels, urging the former to alter his policies and refusing the requests from the latter to lead them.[19] This is similar to the view of John McHugo, who adds that Ali withdrew in frustration when his peace efforts where thwarted by Marwan.[21] Fred Donner and Robert Gleave suggest that Ali was the immediate beneficiary of Uthman's death.[23][2] This is challenged by Madelung, who argues that Aisha would have not actively opposed Uthman if Ali had been the prime mover of the rebellion and its future beneficiary.[51] He and others observe the hostility of Aisha toward Ali,[51][52][53][54] which resurfaced immediately after his accession in the Battle of the Camel (656).[51] Laura Veccia Vaglieri (d. 1989) notes that Ali refused to lead the rebellion but sympathized with them and possibly agreed with their calls for abdication.[55] Hossein Nasr and Asma Afsaruddin,[46] Levi della Vida,[36] and Julius Wellhausen (d. 1918) believe that Ali remained neutral,[56] while Caetani labels Ali as the chief culprit in the murder of Uthman, even though the evidence suggests otherwise.[57] Mahmoud M. Ayoub (d. 2021) notes the often pro-Umayyad stance of the Western classical orientalists, with the exception of Madelung.[58]

Ali was openly critical of the conduct of Uthman, though he generally neither justified his violent death nor condemned the killers.[59][60] While he did not condone the assassination,[61] Ali probably held Uthman responsible through his injustice for the protests which led to his death,[59][62] a view for which Ismail Poonawala cites Waq'at Siffin.[24] Madelung sides with this judgement of Ali from a judicial point of view, saying that Uthman probably did not sanction the murder of Niyar ibn Iyad Aslami, which triggered the deadly raid on his residence, but he obstructed justice by preventing an investigation into the murder, fearing that his aide Marwan was behind it.[63] Still, in his letters to Mu'awiya (r. 661–680) and elsewhere,[64][65][66] Ali insisted that he would bring the murderers to justice in due course,[67][66][61] probably after establishing his authority.[68] Quoting the Shia al-Ya'qubi (d. 897-8) and Ibn A'tham al-Kufi, Ayoub suggests that a mob from various tribes murdered Uthman and that Ali could have not punished them without risking widespread tribal conflict, even if he could identify them.[69] Here, Farhad Daftary says that the actual murderers soon fled Medina after the assassination,[14] a view for which Jafri cites al-Tabari.[70] Closely associated with Ali was Malik al-Ashtar, a leader of the qurra,[3][71] who had led the Kufan delegation against Uthman,[72] even though they heeded Ali's call for nonviolence,[27] and did not participate in the siege of Uthman's residence.[27] A leading Egyptian rebel with links to Ali was his stepson, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, who was allegedly among those who killed Uthman.[68] Some authors have rejected this accusation,[73][74] though most seem to agree that Muhammad visited Uthman shortly before his death and rebuked him for his conduct.[73] These two men and some other supporters of Ali were implicated by Mu'awiya in the assassination of Uthman.[75][14] As such, some authors suggest that Ali was unwilling or unable to punish these individuals.[14][76][77] The revenge for Uthman soon became the pretext for two revolts against Ali.[78][79]

Ali may have been the first male to convert to Islam.[80]

Talha and Zubayr, both companions of Muhammad with ambitions for the high office,[100][101] voluntarily gave their pledges to Ali but later broke them,[102][2][82] although some early sources say that they pledged under duress.[103][100][13] Ibn Abi Shayba (d. 849) writes that Talha told some in Basra that he pledged to Ali with a sword over his head in a walled garden,[92] and Hasan al-Basri (d. 728) too said that he saw Talha and Zubayr pledging to Ali with a sword over their head in a walled garden.[92] Alternatively, a report by the Sunni al-Baladhuri implies that Talha voluntarily paid his allegiance to Ali,[85] while other reports by Ibn Sa'd (d. 845), al-Tabari,[85] al-Ya'qubi (d. 897-8), al-Kufi (ninth century), and Ibn Abd Rabbih (d. 940) place Talha and Zubayr among the first who (voluntarily) pledged to Ali.[89] Laura Veccia Vaglieri (d. 1989) views the claims about coercion as an invented justification for the later violation of the pacts made by Talha and Zubayr.[47] Gleave similarly dismisses the (Sunni) reports that Talha and Zubayr did not pledge or did so under duress, saying that these reports reflect their authors' attempts to provide a fuller context for their subsequent rebellion against Ali in the Battle of the Camel.[2] Madelung argues that the election of Ali could have not happened without the pledge of Talha, as Ali's main rival, but he also suggests that Talha did not come to the ceremony voluntarily and was dragged there by al-Ashtar.[92] Alternatively, Hamid Mavani refers to a letter in Nahj al-balagha where Ali rebukes Talha and Zubayr before the Battle of the Camel for breaking their oaths after voluntarily offering them.[104] Madelung also dismisses as legendary the report by al-Tabari about Zubayr's refusal to pledge.[98]

As for the motives of Talha and Zubayr, the duo revolted after Ali refused to grant them favors.[65][105] In particular, Ali did not offer the two any posts in his government,[47] specifically the governorships of Basra and Kufa.[24] There is, however, one report by al-Ya'qubi where Ali offered the governorship of Yemen to Talha and the rule of al-Yamama and Bahrain to Zubayr, but the two asked for even more.[106] For the Shia Muhammad H. Tabatabai (d. 1981), the equal distribution of the treasury funds among Muslims by Ali antagonized Talha and Zubayr,[105] while Hassan Abbas suggests that the two jumped ship when Ali began to reverse the excessive entitlements of the ruling elite during the caliphate of Uthman,[107] under whom Talha and Zubayr had amassed considerable wealth.[108]

The Umayyads fled Medina after the assassination of Uthman,[52] notable among them Marwan.[114] Some Qurayshite figures also left Medina without paying allegiance to Ali or after breaking their oaths.[52][28][102] Most of them gathered in Mecca, though some made their way to Damascus.[114] In particular, Talha and Zubayr left Medina on the pretext of performing the umrah (lesser pilgrimage).[24][61] Muhammad's widow Aisha was already in Mecca,[52] having left Medina earlier ostensibly for the umrah,[61] despite the pleas of Uthman, who believed her presence in Medina would restrain the rebels from attack.[115] After learning about the accession of Ali, she began to mobilize the rebel party in favor of her close relatives, Talha and Zubayr.[115] She did so ostensibly to seek justice for Uthman, although some have questioned her motives because she had earlier actively opposed Uthman.[71][61][93]

Listing multiple pieces of evidence from Nahj al-balagha and other sources,[116] Mavani argues that Ali saw the general pledge of allegiance as a pivotal component in the legitimacy of his caliphate,[117] and thus distinguished between his election and that of the first caliph Abu Bakr:[118] In the words of Ali and the second caliph Umar, the caliphate of Abu Bakr was decided hastily by a small shura (council), whereas Ali emphasized the general public's endorsement of his caliphate.[118] Some authors maintain that Ali unequivocally viewed himself as the most qualified person to lead the Muslim community after Muhammad by virtue of his merits and his kinship with Muhammad.[119][120][121][122] Mavani, Madelung, and Shah-Kazemi add that Ali further considered himself as the designated successor of Muhammad through a divine decree at the Ghadir Khumm.[123][124][125] Mavani also speculates that Ali would have not sought the title of caliph had Muslims withheld their support.[126] However, when the Muslim community favored him, suggests Madelung, Ali no longer considered the caliphate as his right, but also as his duty.[81]